February was lost to the flu for me. I flirted with getting a flu shot all through January but never found the time to get one. Whether the flu-shot would have saved me, we’ll never know. But I got hit with the flu and spent a week in bed, and the following week feeling horrible.
It is amazing how illness affects the mind. In a swoon, I would wake up from some weird anxiety dream involving bass guitars. I’d roll over and go back to sleep and have the same restless dream. To pass time as I slept in fits and starts around the clock I read a Simmeon novel, Maigret Bides His Time. The novel was one of the best Maigret’s I’ve read and I kept thinking how I wanted to recommend it to friends. Then I started having anxiety dreams about the book and how somehow the plot was foolish because of a rain coat. I’d wake from this dream, toss and turn, fall asleep again and go back to it. The rain coat!
But a sure sign I was ill was that I didn’t drink coffee for the whole period. It must be a biological thing: obviously my body wanted to rest not stay awake. It takes a lot to keep me away from my coffee. I start each day with a strong black cup, then have another before I leave the house. But no coffee at all when I was sick.
Somewhere in my feverish existence , the flu had me far from my coffee.
Copyright 2017 Christopher Donahue